


What have I Gotten Into Here?

by Bumpkin



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 08:10:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11893599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bumpkin/pseuds/Bumpkin
Summary: Darryl’s fiancée thought that meeting her prospective father-in-law had been a nerve wracking experience since he was a rather powerful politician, but this new group of people that Darryl was claiming as his extended family – they were another story entirely. (Based out of the Dakota Jones 'verse created by Dolimir)





	What have I Gotten Into Here?

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Where Are They Now Universe](https://archiveofourown.org/works/214048) by [Dolimir](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dolimir/pseuds/Dolimir). 



About a week or so back, Dolimir posted a missing scene snippet from her Dakota Jones series of stories - [here](http://dolimir-k.livejournal.com/779816.html) \- one that I had been wanting to see for a very long time. I gushed, mentioned how much potential I'd thought was still in the series and so Dolimir said, "So write some, you have my full permission." I said, "I dunno, I'm tempted but I don't know if I'd do 'em justice." Her answer, "Give in to the dark side, Luke!" ... So I fell.

And here is my first attempt, fully vetted by the creator of the 'verse.

Description: Darryl’s fiancée thought that meeting her prospective father-in-law had been a nerve wracking experience since he was a rather powerful politician, but this new group of people that Darryl was claiming as his extended family – they were another story entirely.

Disclaimer: Not mine.. none of it. The idea of Dakota Jones and his entourage of OC’s are all Dolimir’s brilliant creations.

Title: What have I Gotten Into Here?  
By Marns AKA Bumpkin  
Based on the ‘Where Are You Now?’ AU created by Dolimir\Rimilod.  
Rated PG  
Gen  
(Wordcount: 2,790)  


“Who?”

Tia was gaping at Darryl, there was no other word for it and Darryl had a ridiculous urge to comfort her. Ridiculous because it wasn’t like this was bad news - or anything awful like that – it was just a bit of a surprise. Okay, maybe more than a *bit* of a surprise. He supposed he should give her that, if he was going to be fair about things, but come on. It really wasn’t that big a deal.

He scowled and Tia’s mouth snapped shut. He winced. Uh oh, that wasn’t a good sign. Seemed she’d gathered her scattered wits and was now back in control of herself. Yep, very much back in control because she was snapping at him,

“You waited to tell me about this until now, why?”

He shrugged. He’d had his reasons, but it didn’t look like she was ready to hear them. Not yet at any rate. Then after thinking for a bit she asked,

“Tonight?”

He just nodded in the affirmative. Then, after giving him one last disgusted look, she spun on her heel and left.

Oh yeah, this was gonna be *loads* of fun.

x-X-x

Things backstage were half frantic, half relaxed. Bobby was loafing on one of the long plush sofa’s H insisted on for their backstage lounge. Rafe was lazing like a cat, and H - well, H’s behind the scene duties were in something of a hiatus until the show needed clean-up and he was all set and ready to go for his on-stage duties, so he was just hanging out on one of the backstage couches too - having fun tossing un-salted sunflower seeds at the other two men who were doing their best to ignore the mini-projectiles. Finally Bobby couldn’t ignore the barrage anymore, so he propelled himself to his feet and wandered over to the dressing area and his brother.

“So, Beej, when is Darryl and his gal gonna arrive tonight? Before or after you head onstage?”

Bobby called out to his little bro over the dividing wall. Blair answered absently as he did some last minute adjusting,

“He was supposed to be here with her before, but- *ack*”

Then he had to stop as the ‘make-up artist’ plumfed him full in the face with a powder-puff full of the absorbent bronzing powder that made him look like he spent all his free time when not singing on the beach without a care in the world. Joel also backstage was hovering, he had nowhere to be until the box office closed for the night and he could separate out the monies for the charities, and now he added in his own two cents since Blair wasn’t able to say anything.

“Yeah, it’s getting a little close to the wire here. Hope he’s not too disappointed if you have to hold off on the meet and greet till the intermission if he’s late.”

Blair shooed the overly enthusiastic powder-puff wielder away, and escaped to the lounge part of backstage. But then he was free to laugh at the former bomb-squad captain.

“Man, he’s twenty-four now, not fourteen. He’s bringing his fiancée with him, Joel. You have *got* to start remembering they keep growing even when we aren’t around.”

Joel turned a hangdog look on the megastar who he looked on as a son and said,

“But, Blair, remembering how old they are getting means I have to remember how old *I* am getting as well.”

Blair, of course, couldn’t think of a damn thing to say to that.

H could. He helpfully tossed Blair a pillow from one of the large sofas backstage and laughed as Blair’s eyes lit up gleefully as he grabbed it from the air. Then, laughing like a loon, Blair began to playfully pummel at Joel with the soft cushion. He wasn’t connecting very hard, the lack of oxygen from his laughter robbing his muscles of much of their strength. Joel, where he was on the receiving end of the pounding, wasn’t much better off as he did his best to keep his hands up and protecting his head while he giggled like crazy. Their friends just looked on with understanding grins.

Naturally, this was the scene that Darryl and Tia walked into after they had been carefully escorted back to the proper area by Tony.

“What in the hell?”

Tia whispered, gaping. Was there going to be an end to the shocks today?

Darryl, however, wasn’t as discomfited as his fiancée to see a wildly laughing Dakota Jones, ‘rock messiah’ up for three Grammy’s’, whaling on a hysterically giggling older black man with a cushion while everyone else looked on indulgently. This was a type of scene similar to many he had walked in on between any number of the persons that were backstage here in the past. He just called out to them,

“Yo! Impressionable younger minds in the house!”

His call drew everyone’s attention to the door where he and Tia stood. The horseplay between Dakota and Joel came to an abrupt end as they were immediately inundated with welcoming shouts and everyone moved towards the couple at the doorway from wherever they’d been until then.

“Darryl, looking good!”

“Darryl! Well, it’s about time you got here!”

“I was hoping you would arrive before I had to go onstage, Darryl. This is great!”

“Darryl, hey! Long time no see, buddy”

“Hey, m’man, how’s tricks!”

“Darryl, it’s so good to see you. We missed you. How are you doing? And were you going to introduce the lovely young lady at your side?”

Megan, her husband standing silently by her side, was the one who brought Tia’s presence back to everyone’s attention and reminded everyone of their manners. Including Darryl, who had gotten a bit distracted by all the exuberant greetings from his old friends.

He sheepishly glanced sideways to the lady in question and caught her tight lips. Yep, he was in the doghouse again. If he’d ever gotten out of the damn position in the first place anyway from the way he had sprung where they were headed, and who they were meeting, tonight on her like he had this afternoon. Heaving a sigh that would’ve done a martyr proud, Darryl took the proverbial bull by the horns.

“Guys, this is Tia Marshall – the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. Well, of course, you knew that, because otherwise she never would have met you all.”

Now that he’d finally managed to at least give her a clue, he was more comfortable getting down to business and introducing everyone. Darryl started out in the grand oration style he’d learned from the best, giving Blair a wink as he did. Blair stifled the chuckle that wanted to escape at the younger man’s clowning.

“Tia, I have the distinct pleasure of introducing you to the family my father and I have out of choice.”

“Your father? What would a United States Senator have to do with a rock ban-”

Darryl didn’t pay any attention to her interruption, knowing that it would all become clear and then moved on to indicate each person as he named them. They, of course, all did something to acknowledge his introduction in return.

“First, the lovely lady here who reminded me I wasn’t born in a barn, is Megan Connors-Panetti, formerly an Inspector for the New South Wales Police Department. The large man looming behind her, looking very thug-like tonight in his own dashing way, is her husband Roberto Panetti.”

That got him an offended look and a tinkling laugh respectively from the couple.

“Standing beside her, trying so desperately to be cool and failing, is Henri Brown.”

“Hey!”

“Well, okay - maybe he’s a little cool – he does play the bass in the band. Anyway, moving on - beside H, making him look bad with all his effortless sartorial glory, is Brian Rafe.”

“Good to know your father’s fashion sense bred true, Darryl”

Darryl grinned at the impeccably dressed man as he explained to Tia,

“The two of them used to be partners in Major Crimes when my dad ran it (and I still say the only reason they ever got anywhere was because of the odd couple effect they had going on).”

The last bit was a whispered aside into her ear, and Tia giggled. Actually, Tia had begun to feel a bit guilty for giving Darryl such a hard time since the afternoon already. Specially since she realized that she never *would* have been told about any of this if Darryl hadn’t been so serious about her. And from the three he had introduced so far, she was beginning to think she had an idea of who most of these people were.

After the first nerve wracking meeting, she’d spent quite a few evenings with Darryl having dinner with his father, the Senator, and the elder Banks liked to talk. He would tell stories from his days as a Police Officer and Captain, with most of the latter tending to revolve around six particular individuals. All of which seemed to be here, mixed in with some others whose identities were a complete mystery. She supposed that would be changed tonight since Darryl had faithfully carried on with the introductions while she’d been reflecting.

“On the other side of Megan is Joel Taggart.”

The older black man who had been engaged in the horse-play with Dakota when they’d arrived bashfully waved and said a quiet “Hi”. Darryl grinned at his surrogate Uncle’s embarrassment as he revealed,

“He worked his way up through the ranks with my father in the Cascade Police Department and made Captain at the same time. Got stuck as Captain of the Bomb Squad for a while there, but he managed to get his detective status reactivated and back working with my dad again when he felt the time was right. That lasted right up until Jim Ellison, that tall scary looking guy there who also happens to be the band’s drummer, decided that the private sector would be more rewarding and my dad decided to go into politics anyway.”

“Scary looking?” Jim protested, looking wounded. “Why would you call me scary looking Darryl?”

Tia giggled and nervously let herself be turned to face the last person in the cluster around them.

“And finally, well - Dakota Jones you know about – who doesn’t nowadays? He’s a man of many talents - singer, songwriter, musician – and he’s also a great humanitarian, and proponent for the Environment. A modern day Da Vinci, which is closer to the truth than you might think. See I wanted to introduce you to the man underneath the fame, Dr. Blair Sandburg. Scientist, teacher and all-round student of humanity - he’s the drive and imagination behind the concept of ‘Dakota Jones’ and the message the Star puts out. He’s the reason I want to be a teacher *and* a world leader of some kind in the future. Since, because of him, I know can be done. After all, he’s doing it – right Blair?”

Tia blinked. The majority of what Darryl had said during his introduction went flying out of her brain the minute Darryl had said the hot young looking rock star was a ‘Doctor’ of something. Her brain had hung on that phrase and she’d gotten a bit lost imagining the blindingly white lab coat over the ‘Dakota Jones’ stage outfit. She didn’t snap out of it until Darryl distracted her by saying thoughtfully,

“Actually, y’know - every single one of the people here have showed me that you can follow more than one vocation at a time. Every single person here, on Blair’s payroll, has skills from a previous job that can be utilized now in a new fashion if need be alongside their work for Dakota.”

That got Tia’s attention. She turned to him, wanting to know what he’d meant and questioned her fiancé curiously,

“How so?”

“Well, except for two, every single person that works with Blair, including Blair, is former law enforcement. And I don’t know if Blair counts as a non-law enforcement personnel – he was pretty much a cop after running with them for five years for his dissertation, all he didn’t do was go through the academy. The band itself, well it’s made up of two former cops, one former FBI agent, and an anthropologist.”

Tia gave him an odd look and he laughed. Spreading his hands out in a ‘what-can-you-do’ gesture he said,

“Yeah, odd mix, I know – and one that you wouldn’t be told unless you were going to be family. Heh. There’s a lot about this group that you’d never find out except that you are technically marrying into it – like the only two in this madcap crew who don’t have any official ties to law enforcement are Blair, and his brother, Bobby, there – they just have the dubious pleasure of having ties to organized crime.”

Tia choked. But then she couldn’t help the grin that slipped onto her face as everybody else laughed, while Blair and Bobby both protested much like Henri had earlier. Twin mock-offended calls of “Hey!” were voiced and just as good-humoredly ignored. Darryl winked at Tia and continued his explanation,

“But what I was meaning about their using old skills alongside their work for Dakota was – well, let me paint this for you. If a hostage situation comes up, something too delicate for any of the armed services to go in for – allies with a rebel faction type of thing – the FBI can get a’hold of Tony (he’s the hot Italian in charge of security that escorted us back here – the one you eyeballed when you thought I wasn’t looking) or Matt (the one in the band you haven’t seen yet). Then they, in turn, talk to the rest of the crew here and arrange a Dakota Concert in the area…”

“And bingo, you have an instant rescue unit on hand that no-one would suspect!”

“Yep, exactly!”

Darryl beamed as his fiancée showed off her smarts. She was a looker, sure, but her brain was the hottest thing about her. He was about to move in for a kiss when she frowned and he backed off.

“Ti?”

She looked around the gathered group and said with concern evident in her voice.

“But isn’t that dangerous? And I’m not talking small potatoes here - I mean if you guys get caught doing that-”

Blair chuckled richly, and answered her.

“Well, Tia, we’d hardly be very good representatives of Humanitarianism if we didn’t do all that we could to hold up the ideology, now would we? And besides, getting caught is *so* not on the agenda, it would wreak havoc on tour schedules - never mind how much it would enrage our fans that some terrorist faction got to hold onto us when they never can.”

The lighthearted jibes toward the stresses and dangers of fame did exactly what they had been intended to do, break the tension that had developed so suddenly. Before the amused reactions had fully faded Blair focused on Tia and said rather ironically,

“Hey, it’s good to meet you. I hope-”

Blair started, but before he could say anything else the lights started to flash and Matt came running backstage.

“D, H, J - it’s time. Let’s go. Chop, chop! We don’t want to leave the fans waiting…”

While Blair and the other band members were distracted Darryl leaned over and, after dropping a quick kiss in front of it, whispered into her ear,

“That’s Matt, the violin player, remember I told you how he’s one of the former FBI agents – you can tell can’t you?”

Tia giggled and swatted at her fiancé as Blair yelled at the former agent who was busy chivvying the others towards the stage,

“Yeah, Matt, okay!”

Blair then turned back to the young woman he hoped would be his newest family member and with a blindingly bright smile that came from the heart said,

“Tia, well it looks like we are out of time here so - enjoy the show, stick around afterwards and you’ll see that the crazy actually does start to make sense after a while, and welcome to the madhouse!”

He pulled her into a quick hug, bussed her on the cheek like an annoying older brother would and bounded off, following the other three to the Stage she guessed. Bemused, with a hand on the cheek he’d insulted, Tia watched him go.

They were not what she had been expecting at all. None of them. And now she couldn’t wait to actually talk to them after the show, she had a feeling it was going to be a very illuminating conversation.

-end-  
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Marns  
~pN

Remember, Feedback of any kind is always welcome - concrit, squee, one liners, grunts/smilies, flames... whatever - it's all good. :D Food for the muse... well, it's a good lure anyway for the daft butterfly at any rate. :wink:


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